The door is open – come in and thump me

I attended a Crime Prevention meeting at the village hall on Friday night. My ears are ringing with security advice and streetwise tips. I’m fed up with it. Kay and I like to keep the front door unlocked because we’re in and out all the time. We’re told we mustn’t – if we do, we’re as good as inviting a thief in. What about teenagers? They’re asking to be mugged if they use their mobile phone on the high street. Then there’s the pensioner at the cashpoint, clinging on to his shopping bag instead of shielding his pin number. It’s no way to carry on. They need crime prevention advice.

I reckon criminals hold the balance of power. Rural crime is on the increase. Gangs prowl the villages at night looking for things to steal, burn and destroy. Like everybody else, farmers are forced to keep their belongings under lock and key but it’s difficult with stock, farm machinery, troughs, fencing and suchlike. The metal of our livelihood is up for grabs.

I read somewhere – I can’t remember where – that a society deprived of justice is fearful and easy to manipulate. Criminals in the UK are taking advantage. Mass immigration and a cost-cutting stance on law and order, combined with high unemployment will play a part in a crimewave the like of which we’ve never seen before. I pay no mind to ‘favourable government crime statistics.’

The safest communities are those where people stick together and support each other with Neighbourhood Watch schemes. Rogues thrive undetected in neighbourhoods where people ‘keep themselves to themselves.’ They’re not doing anybody any favours. I wonder whether they’d be better described as ‘people who turn a blind eye.’

Faced with an epidemic of indifference, I suggest the following: birch, hard-labour, noose.